Unriddling the Exeter Riddles

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles PDF Author: Patrick J. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271078170
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
The vibrant and enigmatic Exeter Riddles (ca. 960–980) are among the most compelling texts in the field of medieval studies, in part because they lack textually supplied solutions. Indeed, these ninety-five Old English riddles have become so popular that they have even been featured on posters for the London Underground and have inspired a sculpture in downtown Exeter. Modern scholars have responded enthusiastically to the challenge of solving the Riddles, but have generally examined them individually. Few have considered the collection as a whole or in a broader context. In this book, Patrick Murphy takes an innovative approach, arguing that in order to understand the Riddles more fully, we must step back from the individual puzzles and consider the group in light of the textual and oral traditions from which they emerged. He offers fresh insights into the nature of the Exeter Riddles’ complexity, their intellectual foundations, and their lively use of metaphor.

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles PDF Author: Patrick J. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271078170
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
The vibrant and enigmatic Exeter Riddles (ca. 960–980) are among the most compelling texts in the field of medieval studies, in part because they lack textually supplied solutions. Indeed, these ninety-five Old English riddles have become so popular that they have even been featured on posters for the London Underground and have inspired a sculpture in downtown Exeter. Modern scholars have responded enthusiastically to the challenge of solving the Riddles, but have generally examined them individually. Few have considered the collection as a whole or in a broader context. In this book, Patrick Murphy takes an innovative approach, arguing that in order to understand the Riddles more fully, we must step back from the individual puzzles and consider the group in light of the textual and oral traditions from which they emerged. He offers fresh insights into the nature of the Exeter Riddles’ complexity, their intellectual foundations, and their lively use of metaphor.

Riddles

Riddles PDF Author: Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj
Publisher: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura
ISBN: 9517465769
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
Riddles are a journey into a fascinating world rich in delightful metaphors and ambiguity. This book is based on material drawn from all over the world and analyses both traditional true riddles and contemporary joking questions. It introduces the reader to different riddling situations and the many functions of riddles, wich vary from education to teasing, and from defusing a heated situation to entertainment. In addition to providing a survey of international riddle scholarship, the book has a comprehensive bibliography with suggestions for further reading.

Enigmas and Riddles in Literature

Enigmas and Riddles in Literature PDF Author: Eleanor Cook
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521855101
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 10

Get Book Here

Book Description
A wide-ranging and original study on how enigmas and riddles work in literature.

Say What I Am: A Book of Old English Riddles

Say What I Am: A Book of Old English Riddles PDF Author: Ben Waggoner
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1941136117
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Get Book Here

Book Description
Say What I Am collects forty-nine of the best of the Old English riddles found in the Exeter Book, the largest surviving collection of Old English poetry, plus two more found in other manuscripts. Carefully translated by Ben Waggoner, these riddles provide a unique look into the Anglo-Saxon worldview. Through their poetry, common tools and household objects-a key, a plough, an oven, a butter churn-are shown to possess hidden beauty, humor, and wonder. Birds, bees, plants, beasts, men and women, and even stars are described in rich metaphor, often getting a chance to speak for themselves. These riddles make a witty and charming introduction to the culture and daily life of Anglo-Saxon England.

Untying the Knot

Untying the Knot PDF Author: Galit Hasan-Rokem
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195356322
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book collects eighteen previously unpublished essays on the riddle--a genre of discourse found in virtually every human culture. Hasan-Rokem and Shulman have drawn these essays from a variety of cultural perspectives and disciplines; linguists, anthropologists, folklorists, and religion and literature scholars consider riddling practices in Hebrew, Finnish, Indian languages, Chinese, and classical Greek. The authors seek to understand the peculiar expressive power of the riddle, and the cultural logic of its particular uses; they scrutinize the riddle's logical structure and linguistic strategies, as well as its affinity to neighboring genres such as enigmas, puzzles, oracular prophecy, proverbs, and dreams. In this way, they begin to answer how riddles relate to the conceptual structures of a particular culture, and how they come to represent a culture's cosmology or cognitive map of the world. More importantly, these essays reveal the human need for symbolic ordering--riddles being one such form of cultural ritual.

Amorous Games

Amorous Games PDF Author: James Woodrow Hassell
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292773196
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
Among the more interesting incunabula preserved in the Salle de la Réserve of the Bibliothèque National in Paris are the apparently unique copies of two editions, very similar in content, of a work entitled Les Adevineaux amoureux. In much more comprehensive form Les Adevineaux amoureux is preserved in a manuscript belonging to the Musée Conde at Chantilly. All three texts, in medieval French, appear to date from the 1470s. The present work, Amorous Games, is a critical edition of Les Adevineaux amoureux. Amorous Games is a miscellany whose principal unifying force is the compiler's aim to provide a manual of conversation and entertainment for polite society. Included are series of questions and answers belonging to the well-established medieval tradition of the "Demandes amoureuses"; a very large number of riddles, mainly folk riddles; and "venditions en amours," little poems that apparently came into bing as part of a social game. Students of medieval French literature, particularly those with a penchant for some of the minor genres, will find new material in the Amorous Games. Folklorists will discover what is probably the largest collection of riddles bequeathed to us by medieval France and also much that is of value to specialists in the proverb and folk tale. For this critical edition of Les Adevineaux amoureux Professor Hassell has selected the Chantilly manuscript, because it is the most complete and also because it had not yet been published. The Appendix contains the text of the more complete of the two incunabula and the significant variants appearing in the other fifteenth-century printed edition. The manuscript text has been collated with that of the incunabula, and copious notes and an index to the riddles have been supplied. In his introduction Professor Hassell discusses in detail the major classes and subclasses of the riddle, drawing on the work of Petsch, Taylor, Abrahams, and other scholars of the genre.

Riddles at work in the early medieval tradition

Riddles at work in the early medieval tradition PDF Author: Megan Cavell
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526133733
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
Capitalising on developments in the field over the past decade, Riddles at work provides an up-to-date microcosm of research on the early medieval riddle tradition. The book presents a wide range of traditional and experimental methodologies. The contributors treat the riddles both as individual poems and as parts of a tradition, but, most importantly, they address Latin and Old English riddles side-by-side, bringing together texts that originally developed in conversation with each other but have often been separated by scholarship. Together, the chapters reveal that there is no single, right way to read these texts but rather a multitude of productive paths. This book will appeal to students and scholars of early medieval studies. It contains new as well as established voices, including Jonathan Wilcox, Mercedes Salvador-Bello and Jennifer Neville.

Orature and Yoruba Riddles

Orature and Yoruba Riddles PDF Author: A. Akinyeme
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137502630
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
Orature and Yorùbá Riddles takes readers into the hitherto unexplored undercurrents of riddles in Africa. Because of its oral and all too often ephemeral nature, riddles have escaped close scrutiny from scholars. The strength of the Yorùbá as the focus of this study is impressive indeed: a major ethnic group in Africa, with established connections with the black diaspora in North America and the Caribean; a rich oral and written culture; a large and diverse population; and an integrated rural-urban society. The book is divided into six chapters for readers' convenience. When read in sequence, the book provides a comprehensive, holistic sense of Yorùbá creativity where riddles are concerned. At the same time, the book is conceived in a way that each chapter could be read individually. Therefore, those readers seeking understanding of a specific type of riddle may target a single chapter appearing most relevant to her/his curiosity.

The Poetics of Colonization

The Poetics of Colonization PDF Author: Carol Dougherty
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195359232
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tales of archaic Greek city foundations continue to be told and retold long after the colonies themselves were settled, and this book explores how the ancient Greeks constructed their memory of founding new cities overseas. Greek stories about colonizing Sicily or the Black Sea in the seventh century B.C.E. are no more transparent, no less culturally constructed than nineteenth-century British tales of empire in India or Africa; they are every bit as much about power, language, and cultural appropriation. This book brings anthropological and literary theory to bear on the narratives that later Greeks tell about founding colonies and the processes through which the colonized are assimilated into the familiar story-lines, metaphors, and rituals of the colonizers. The distinctiveness and the universality of the Greek colonial representations are explored through explicit comparison with later European narratives of new world settlement.

Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments

Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments PDF Author: Richard Bauman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199879273
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection of thirty-seven entries selected from the more than 550 that make up the International Encyclopedia of Communications focuses on expressive forms and practices that are popular and participatory in nature: folklore forms such as folktale and riddle; cultural performances such as ritual and festival; and popular entertainments such as puppetry and mime. Cross-references within each individual entry facilitate exploration within the volume, while bibliographies appended to each entry direct the reader to related literature. Covering basic concepts, analytical perspectives, communicative media, expressive genres, and complex performance events, this concise yet comprehensive book is a handy reference for those interested in folklore and its growing role in drama, anthropology, and cultural studies.